nice, low gain transistors

[Seven64]

i am working on a project, but no matter the transistors i use i cannot get it to pass a clean signal.  it varies in strength and distortion, but i cannot find a single transistor that will give it a clean signal. i have tried mpsa12, mpsa13, mpsa 18, 2n5088, 2n5089.

none of them work.

fwiw its the kay tremolo pcb layout on arons gallery.  

obviously, the next one i try works perfectly.  i have tried the vero layout and used multiple transistors before the vero itself went bad, never finding something that worked.

2n3904's work perfectly!  almost no volume drop, and a wonderful, clean choppy tremolo effect. 

[phector2004]

2N2222